Israeli Culture and identity

1
Israeli Culture and identity

• Judaism and Zionism

2
The idea of the "New Jew" as opposed to Exile
Jew

• The New Jew
• Strong and brave
• Farmer or worker
• Socialist
• Village dweller
• Sports or hiking
• Rooted in the land
• Normalized
• Adaptation of Non-Jewish image

• The Exile Jew
• Nervous and afraid
• Merchant or agent
• Capitalist
• Urban
• Talmud learning
• Easily wandering
• Different not-normal
• Adaptation of anti-Semite image

3
Reviving Hebrew culture in its ancient cradle

• Hebrew language as spoken secular
• Hebrew secular culture
• The bible replaces the Talmud
• Jewish festivals as nature agricultural
• New meaning to religion
• Opposing Yiddish and other languages
• Hebrew Education and high learning
• Integrating universal culture into Hebrew

4
Israel as a spiritual center

• The School of Ahad-Ha-am
• Zionism as a Revival of Judaism
• Revival in the land of Israel
• Israel as focus of Jewish culture
• Israel as Light upon the Nations
• Integration and contradiction
• Normalization versus uniqueness

5
Hebrew Culture in the Yishuv

• The politics of culture
• Hebrew education system
• Agricultural and socialist ethos
• The Kibbutz
• Youth movements
• Norms and model images
• The Arab Bedouin symbolizing authenticity
• The Halutz (pioneer)
• The guard-soldier
• The Sabra
• Voluntarism
• Tel Aviv the first Hebrew city
• - symbol and reality

6
Cultural transformation Following State
establishment

• Facing Mass immigration
• Facing decline of pioneering
• The politics of melting-pot
• Battle against Yiddish and oriental legacies
• Ben-Gurion and Mamlachtiut(statism)
• Propaganda against careerism
• The negative image of yordim (emigrants)

7
Growing counter culture since the 1970s

• Penetrating oriental culture to mainstream
  popular culture (hits)
• Openness toward Yiddish
• Privatization - individualization
• Americanization consumer culture
• Changing attitudes toward Diaspora and emigration
• Decline of Kibbutz movement
• Growing nostalgia to Jewish book case

8
Israeli Culture - Conclusion

• Normalization and Judaization of Israeli culture
• Flourishing Hebrew culture
• Literature, theater, journalism
• Hebrew authors as world-known stars
• Hebrew as a Jewish lingua franca